ATLANTA — Bryce Harper watched from first base as the rookie starting pitcher, suddenly thrust into the biggest appearance of his fledgling career, took a step back and tossed a baseball toward the third-base dugout. After a flare into left field by Michael Harris II put a second runner on base in the bottom of the 10th inning, right-hander Andrew Painter needed to bear down and retire one more batter, pinch-hitter Dominic Smith, to hang on and finish off an unlikely Game 2 win. So he took a second and asked home-plate umpire Adam Beck for a new baseball.
Painter, Harper thought, had the situation in his hands, going at his pace. Never mind the runners, or the home crowd at Truist Park or the fact that the Phillies would be sent packing with a loss. The 23-year-old had control.
“I saw him kind of take a moment after that hit against Harris,” the two-time National League MVP Harper said, “and step back on the mound, grab the rosin bag, throw the ball out. He was trying to slow down the game.”
Three and a half months ago, Painter could not slow anything down. He struggled to keep his outings from spiraling and Philadelphia in games. With a 7.06 ERA, he was sent down to Triple-A. He returned a little over a month later with a chance to show he grew from the reset.
Not only did Painter flash improvement in stuff; he showed leaps in poise. It wasn’t all perfect, but the former top prospect demonstrated what made him such an exciting minor leaguer. Along the way, he established himself as one of only a handful of pitchers the Phillies seem to trust this postseason. With the season on the line and closer Jhoan Duran unavailable on Wednesday afternoon, the club handed Painter the ball in the eighth inning and rode him all the way to a 4-3, extra-inning victory over the Braves. He dealt with the traffic and struck out Smith on a walk-off ABS challenge to force a do-or-die Game 3 of the National League Wild Card Series.
“It kind of fired me up,” Harper said, “because he was able to slow down the moment and slow down the opportunity to be right there.”
Painter had never made a real, high-leverage relief appearance in his life before Wednesday. Sure, he’d followed an opener a couple times this year, and he had some piggyback outings dating back to high school. But a legitimate, back-end reliever? That was new territory.
But as the Phillies found themselves with only about a pair of regular relievers they could trust heading into the Wild Card Series, the team had to get creative for the best-of-three set. In Game 1, Painter sat in the bullpen, where he “was probably making some people nervous” due to “all the pacing I was doing.” During Game 2, he was calmer, ready to go when Kyle Schwarber and Harper made up for the latter’s costly right-field misplay with back-to-back home runs to tie the game in the eighth.
Painter took over in the bottom of the inning. However, it was not immediately smooth sailing. He walked Austin Riley on four pitches. He fired two more balls to Harris, prompting pitching coach Caleb Cotham to visit the mound.
“I just told him, ‘You got this,” catcher J.T. Reamuto said. “‘Like, you gotta trust your stuff here. You’re plenty good enough to get this guy out.’ Just told him to attack the hitter, really. Just me and him, let’s go get him. Just kinda gave him a little pump-up speech. Not that he needed that. But tried to calm him a little bit and get back in the zone.”
He fired a fastball right down the middle. One pitch later, Painter got Harris to ground into a 3-6-3 double play before putting away Sean Murphy on the first pitch to end the eighth. After six balls to start it, he settled in.
“I think once I got that first strike in there,” Painter said, “I was able to kind of ease in and it gave me a little bit of peace of mind.”
Atlanta had pinch-hitter Mike Yastrzemski begin their end of the ninth, and he flied out to left field. Painter got Ronald Acuña Jr. out on a grounder to second. Following a single by Drake Baldwin, he retired Ozzie Albies on a ball to right to send the game to extras.
Painter was in the tunnel underneath the dugout in the top of the 10th when Alec Bohm sent a go-ahead home run the other way, giving the Phillies the lead. He heard the reaction and rushed up to celebrate. It was his game to close.
“Knowing that three outs was going to get that job done and letting everything loose,” Painter said. “Everything I had in the tank, just emptying it.”
Cleanup batter Matt Olson stepped to the plate in the bottom of the 10th, and Painter struck him out looking. Mauricio Dubón singled to center field, then Painter responded by striking out Riley swinging. That’s when Harris, with the Braves down to their last strike, reached out and blooped an opposite-field base hit to put runners on first and second.
Painter could have folded. He remained composed. He perfectly placed a 99 mph heater on the inside edge to the left-handed-hitting Smith, tapped his head in unison with Realmuto when it was called a ball and walked into no-man’s land between the mound and the third-base foul line while waiting for the result.
It was a strike, Beck announced, one that ended a gutsy three-inning performance for Painter. It was a showing that no one — not Painter, not the Phillies — could have envisioned when he was demoted in June.
“I wish I could say I pictured that then,” interim manager Don Mattingly said, “because obviously it looked bad then. But I think it speaks to Paint of who he is and who he’s going to be, the way he’s came back. He went down there, he didn’t complain, he went to work, kept pitching. We talked about it then, that it was not something that we were going to send him down for a start, try to fix something and get him back up.
“No, he had to go down and earn his way back. If he wouldn’t have been pitching good, he wouldn’t have found his way back. But I think it does speak to him and who he is. Went down, went to work, came back. He’s been a different guy.”
Because Painter has been talked about for so long — he was in consideration for a rotation spot as a 19-year-old in 2023 before injuring his elbow — it’s easy to forget how young he is. For a while, it looked shaky. He did not look the same in his return from Tommy John surgery. But lately, he’s given another glimpse of that ace-level potential. His Game 2 appearances looked like a signal that he’s started to figure it out.
“That’s a career-altering performance, in my opinion,” Realmuto said. “Just the amount of confidence that you can gain from that. And we’ve seen it from him as we’ve gone this year. He’s just gotten more and more confident. So I think if you can come in in that spot and be pitching that well, there’s no telling what that does for him.”
That can all still wait for now. In the meantime, the Phillies have another game to win, and it would be a lot easier if Duran is available. They “hope” he is, Mattingly said. The club has not yet announced a starting pitcher. Aaron Nola could pitch on regular rest, and Zack Wheeler could throw on three days’. It would not be surprising to see both of them in Thursday’s Game 3. “I’m assuming it’ll be pretty much all hands on deck,” Mattingly said. “We’ll talk about where we’re going to go with it.”
Painter will probably not be a factor after throwing 37 pitches, but he said he’d be able to pitch if needed. Painter said his close friend Jesús Luzardo “would’ve made fun of” him if he didn’t volunteer. It’s unlikely, but crazier things have happened. “Everything on the line,” Painter said.
Whether he pitches again in this Wild Card Series or not, if the Phillies can piece together one more win with some combination of 27 (or more) outs, Painter’s efforts will not be forgotten in Philadelphia.
“I was trying to be super aggressive and go down with my best stuff,” Painter said. “Knowing the situation we were in there and backs against the wall a little bit, just stepping on the gas there and just giving it everything I had in that moment.”
